Telecom Italia on Thursday confirmed that it will shed 1,700 jobs in a bid to reduce labour costs, and has shelved a plan to hire more young people until the government clarifies its position on the subject.
The Italian incumbent said it has informed trade unions of its decision and of the need to start negotiations.
It plans to shed staff in certain areas, including business support activities, its open access operations, IT, and directory enquiries.
It also plans to move its customer service employees into a newly-created subsidiary, TIM Caring, "within a short period of time," it said.
In addition, Telecom Italia referred to a previously announced plan to recruit 4,000 young people over four years under a government initiative designed to help companies with ag ing workforces to bring in new blood while at the same time protecting existing jobs.
The scheme was due to form part of the government’s new Jobs Act, but has yet to be implemented. As such, Telecom Italia is holding fire on its recruitment plan.
"The number of redundancies communicated to the trade union organisations is approximately 1,700 in the whole Telecom Italia group," the operator said in a statement on Thursday.
"The company is willing to further discuss with the trade unions to identify the needed solutions that conjugate safeguard of employment with efficient and sustainable labour cost," it added. "The parties have agreed to carry on negotiations at the Ministry over the next days."
